Who doesn’t love a nature gone mad/rampaging beastie movie? From the classic thrills of Jaws, to the cheesy excellence of something like Venom. From the bitey fun of Piranha, to the hilarious earnestness of Prophecy. What is not to like? Now it is the turn of hippos. Hungry, hungry hippos.
And the movie will be called… Hungry.
Which makes no sense. The hippopotamus is a committed vegetarian. They are only dangerous because they are, for want of a better description, bastards! Only mosquitos are thought to kill more people in Africa, where the locals know just how dangerous these creatures are. They are highly aggressive and territorial, killing more people each year than lions, or even snakes. They don’t eat them, though.
Check out this story of a man who was attacked by one in Zambia a couple of months ago.
The internet, in a world where Snakes On A Plane became a thing, and where boardgames like Battleship get movie adaptions, has been joking about a Hungry, Hungry Hippos movie for years. This probably isn’t that, but the choice of name will be at least a wink and a nod to online wags.
Hungry is tagged as a survival thriller and is being launched at the American Film Market by Signature Entertainment and filmmaker James Nunn (Tower Block, Shark Bait) is set to direct.
FX designer Dan Martin (The Banshees of Inisherin) and VFX company Magic Dust VFX (One Piece) are already on board and principal photography has begun in Malta, based on a screenplay by Nunn.
According to the blurb, Hungry centers on a group of holidaymakers who must fight for their lives against a rampaging hippo on the loose after becoming lost in the Louisiana swampland. What, them, or the hippo? Clearly, you can’t move in Louisiana for all the damn hippos.